


The Blood Of The Covenant

by RyspositoWritings



Category: Castle
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 10:50:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2848241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RyspositoWritings/pseuds/RyspositoWritings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Rysposito Secret Santa Fic Exchange 2k14. Ryan and Esposito are spending their first Christmas together as a couple, but ever since Ryan's parents found out about them, they've made things especially difficult. Esposito, Castle, and Beckett all go out of their way to make Ryan have a happy Christmas. Sequel to "I'm Bringing A Date" but can stand alone.</p>
<p>Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blood Of The Covenant

 

__

_...is thicker than the water of the womb._

Detective Kevin Ryan stood at the espresso machine making him and his partner a cup of coffee. They’d just finished a case, which was nice because it was only two days before Christmas and it looked as though they weren’t going to have any worries for the holidays. If they could just get through the mountain of paperwork their recent case had provided, they could go home and not come back for a couple of days. Two days of just him and Esposito celebrating Christmas together sounded like bliss.

As he poured cream into both cups, he felt strong arms wrap around his middle and lips caress his neck.

“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Ryan asked softly.

“I’m taking a break.” Esposito’s breath was hot against Ryan’s neck and a shiver went down his spine. He closed his eyes and leaned back into his partner’s strong chest.

He loved this about Esposito. How he could be strong and intense one minute and then warm and cuddly the next. He let his boyfriend lightly kiss his neck for a minute or two before turning around to face him.

“You know, Gates said this wouldn’t be a problem so long as we don’t distract anyone.” He said.

Esposito put his hands on Ryan’s hips and pulled him closer. “We’re not distracting anyone.” He replied.

Ryan put his face very close to his partner’s, their lips almost touching but not quite. “This is distracting.” He breathed before kissing Esposito’s lips very softly and then backing away. “I made you coffee.” He handed the mug to Esposito, grabbed his own mug, and moved to the doorway.

“Oh, Ryan. There you are.” Beckett said, poking her head into the room. “Your parents are here looking for you.”

Ryan exchanged a look with Esposito. “They’re here?” He asked, turning his attention back to Beckett. “What do they want?”

Beckett shrugged. “They didn’t say.” She replied, giving Ryan a strange look before walking back to her desk.

Ryan looked back at Esposito. “What do you think they’re here for?”

“I don’t know.” Esposito said softly. “Maybe they’re here to make amends or something.”

“I doubt it.” Ryan replied. “You heard what they said last time we saw them. I’m pretty sure they’d rather I was dead.”

“They’re your parents, they don’t want you dead.” Esposito placed his coffee down and stepped over to his boyfriend, setting his coffee down as well and enveloping him in a hug. “They’re disappointed and sad because they don’t get it, but they’re still your parents and they love you.”

Ryan buried his face in Esposito’s neck. “Why can’t my parents be like your mom?” He whispered.

Esposito rubbed his back a little and kissed him on the head. It really wasn’t fair. Esposito had been friends with the Ryans up until about a month and a half ago. Now they looked at him like the bad kid at school who corrupted their son. The thing was, it was easier for Esposito to leave them behind. They didn’t mean as much to him as they did to Ryan. Being rejected by your parents was devastating at any age. Esposito knew, had his own mother stopped talking to him over this, he would be having a hard time as well. Instead, his mother gave them a long stare, said she knew all along, and then offered them some cookies.

Why couldn’t Ryan’s parents just be like Esposito’s mom?

Ryan pulled away. “I guess I should go see what they want.”

Esposito handed Ryan his coffee and the two of them walked out of the break room.

Mr. and Mrs. Ryan were standing next to Ryan’s desk, Mrs. Ryan looking concerned and Mr. Ryan looking slightly pissed off. When he caught sight of Esposito, the glare was hard to miss. Esposito glared right back, refusing to be intimidated.

“Hey, mom. Dad.” Ryan greeted. “What’s going on?”

“Sweetie, we’d like to talk, if that’s alright.” Mrs. Ryan replied.

Ryan took a second before he shrugged and nodded. He looked to Esposito for a little encouragement before leading the way to one of the interrogation rooms. The choice of doing this in an interrogation room was simply because he didn’t want to get into a screaming match with his father while everyone watched, and he knew Esposito would keep people away from observing through the two-way mirror.

Ryan sat down in one of the chairs and set his coffee down while his parents sat across from him. If it were anyone else, it would feel like he was interrogating them. This felt like the other way around.

His mom took a deep breath before speaking. “Well, I guess I’ll start.” She said. “I… don’t like how we left things, Kevin. Everyone said things they didn’t mean and I think we need to start over.”

Ryan gave a slight nod. “Okay.” He said.

Mrs. Ryan looked to her husband and then back at her son. “Your dad and I both feel that what you’re doing isn’t right-”

Ryan cut her off with a sigh that would rival any rebellious teenager’s.

“Hey, listen to your mother!” Mr. Ryan said angrily.

“What, and hear about how disappointed you two are in me?” Ryan asked, the hatred for his father overpowering any other feeling.

“We don’t agree with your lifestyle, Kevin. And, yes, we are disappointed.” Mrs. Ryan said, her approach much less aggressive, but still manipulative.

Ryan dug the heels of his hands into his closed eyes, trying to find a way to get it through to these people that their approach, to be frank, sucked. “I don’t know what you want me to do.” He said finally. “I’m really at a loss here, because my entire life I’ve been told to be myself, but when I am, you guys have a mental break down.”

“This isn’t who you are, Kevin.” Mrs. Ryan said. “You think this is who you are because you want it so badly, but sometimes you have to realize that what you want is not what you should have.”

Ryan was rendered speechless and he stared at his mother before putting his face in his hands and mumbling, “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

“What about all those girls you dated?” Mr. Ryan said. “You seemed to be attracted to them, why the sudden change?”

“I didn’t change, dad.” Ryan said. “I still like girls, I just also like-”

“No, don’t even say it.” Mr. Ryan interrupted.

“Well, what the hell do you want me to do?” Ryan said, standing. “You want me to dance around the two of you for the rest of my life because I make you uncomfortable? You want me to go to family functions and pretend like Javi doesn’t exist so you can save face in front of your family and friends? You want me to deny who I am just because you might feel embarrassed?”

“Well, what about you?” Mr. Ryan stood as well. “You won’t take a second to think about how this makes us feel. We have friends who might find out about our son and his disgusting habits-”

“I couldn’t give two shits about your goddamn judgemental friends!” Ryan interrupted. He could feel tears threatening and just hoped his throat wouldn’t close up before this whole thing was over. “I don’t care what people think, I don’t care that your friends will think less of you, and you shouldn’t either!”

“Kevin, goddammit!” Mr. Ryan slammed his fist on the table. “You are going against God! This is not just about us, this is about you and what you’re doing to yourself! You’re only thinking about short term pleasures when you really should be thinking about how this is going to affect you in the long run.”

“I had nuns smacking me around for twelve years, I know the arguments and I know exactly what you’re going to say. But it doesn’t matter because I’m not going to fit in your perfect mold. You have other kids who are straight, be proud of them and leave me alone!”

“Kevin, we’re concerned about you.” Mrs. Ryan finally spoke again.

Ryan was absolutely done. This wasn’t even that much different from the first fight. Just the same arguments being bounced around the walls and never sticking. They could yell until they were blue in the face, but neither one of them was going to change.

“Look,” Ryan took a deep breath. “I’m in love with Javi. I know it’s hard for you to hear, but I am. I’ve never been in a relationship where I was this happy. Now, I’m sorry-”

“Kevin-”

“Will you let me finish?” Ryan glared at his father. “I’m sorry that you don’t approve and I’m sorry that you can’t accept me, but this is the way it is. You can tell your friends all the lies you want. You can tell them I moved to some other country and that I married a woman and have five kids. You can even tell them I’m dead. I don’t care anymore. But I’m not going to dump Javi just because my parents want to control me.”

Mr. Ryan seemed to be trying not to explode. “Let’s go.” He said to his wife through gritted teeth. Mrs. Ryan stood and the two of them walked to the door. Once Mr. Ryan opened it, he turned to face his son. “I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to hear from you or hear anything about you until you decide to quit doing this garbage. Until then, I don’t have a son.”

And they left.

Ryan felt the tears start falling as he watched their retreating backs. He was vaguely aware of all his coworkers watching him. He knew they hadn’t heard most of what happened, but the door had been open for his father’s last words, and, considering they were detectives, they could put two and two together.

As Ryan felt himself falling apart, Esposito stepped into the room and shut the door to keep their nosy friends out.

“Are you okay?” Esposito asked.

Ryan swallowed. “I, uh…” A few tears fell. “I think I was just disowned.”

Esposito was pulling him into a hug a second later and Ryan let himself be held, no longer having the strength to stand alone. He buried his face into his partner’s shoulder and let his tears soak into the fabric of his black henley.

“I didn’t think it would hurt this bad, Javi.” Ryan all but whimpered. “Why do they hate me so much?”

Esposito held on to his crying partner tighter. “They don’t, Kevin. They don’t hate you. They’re just… so set in their ways, it’s hard to accept.”

Ryan took a shaky breath as Esposito rocked back and forth slowly, trying to hold his broken partner together. What he really wanted to do was run after Mr. Ryan and punch him square in the face, but there wasn’t much that would do and he was reluctant to leave Ryan alone right now. So he held on to his boyfriend and let the silent tears soak his shoulder, praying that there was a way he could fix everything.

~.~.~

Beckett watched from the other side of the two-way mirror. Esposito had kept everyone out while Ryan’s father yelled at him, but once he’d left that post to go comfort his boyfriend, Beckett had slipped into the room. She knew she was being nosy, and she wasn’t exactly proud of it, but a member of her team was having problems and that was not going to happen on her watch. Those boys in there were her brothers, and there was no way she was going to let some jerk out there break her boys.

As she watched Ryan fall apart, the door opened and she turned to find her husband entering the room.

“Is he okay?” Castle whispered, apparently forgetting that the boys wouldn’t be able to hear them.

“I don’t know.” Beckett replied. She turned her attention back to the hugging detectives. “As of right now? No, I don’t think so. But maybe it won’t be so bad later.” She sighed. “He thinks his parents hate him.” She looked over at Castle. “Can you imagine your parents hating you?”

Castle gave her a long look. “For a while, I thought maybe my dad did. Of course, it’s hard to tell when you don’t know the guy. I’d just figured, the fact that he never contacted me meant he wanted nothing to do with me and therefore hated me.” He shrugged. “Now I know he doesn’t, but for a long time I thought he did and it’s not a very good feeling, honestly.” He looked back out at the boys. “But this is wildly different. To spend your entire life thinking your parents would always have your back, only to find out there are stipulations to their love, that I can’t imagine.”

The two of them watched through the mirror a little while longer before Beckett turned to her husband. “We need to do something for him. For them. Christmas is in a couple of days and we can’t let them spend it completely alone, especially when Ryan isn’t welcome at his family’s.”

Castle gave her a smile. “That’s an excellent idea.”

“Okay, well, don’t go too overboard, Castle.” Beckett warned. “We don’t want to overwhelm anyone, and we don’t want to make it seem like we’re trying too hard. I think maybe just a dinner and we can get them a meaningful gift or something.”

“Already way ahead of you!” Castle walked out of the room.

“Don’t go overboard, Castle!” Beckett called after him.

“I’ll see you at home!” Castle called back.

Beckett sighed. “He’s gonna go overboard.” She grumbled to herself. She looked out the two-way mirror and watched Esposito wipe a tear off of Ryan’s cheek before giving him a soft kiss. Maybe overboard wouldn’t be so bad.

Esposito turned after that and it looked as though he was leaving the room.

Beckett instantly ran out of the observation room and tried to make it look like she was casually walking… somewhere. She looked around and decided on the break room, trying to make it look like she was most definitely not spying on anyone just a few seconds ago.

“Hey, Beckett.” Esposito caught up to her.

“Hey.” Beckett replied. “He okay?”

“Well, he’s a little better I think.” Esposito said. “Listen, I know we’ve got a lot of paperwork, and we won’t be gone for long, but I was wondering if you’re cool if Ryan and I go get something to eat or something. I think he kinda would like to get outta here for a few hours.”

Beckett nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine. If you want to go home, I’m okay with that too. I can finish everything up.”

“We can’t leave you with this much work.” Esposito protested.

“It’s no trouble, Espo. I’m a lot tougher than you think. I can fill out paperwork pretty well. I’d say I’m the best at it.”

Esposito huffed out a laugh. “Tell you what. I’ll go with Ryan for a few hours and then I’ll leave him home and come back here to help you with the rest.”

Beckett nodded. “Okay, that’ll work. But seriously, Espo. If you don’t come back, I’ll be fine.”

Esposito rolled his eyes. “I’ll be back in a few hours, Beckett.” He said as he turned to grab Ryan and go out the back way so he wouldn’t have to deal with awkward sympathetic stares. Right before he opened the door to the interrogation room, his phone went off. “Esposito.” He answered.

“Hey, ‘Zito.” Castle said from the other end. “Listen, I’m gonna need your help on something...”

~.~.~

“You told them six o’clock, right?” Castle asked as he and Alexis worked on decorating the tree.

“Yes and they said they would be here on time. What exactly are you planning, Castle?” Beckett replied from her spot on the couch.

“Exactly what you said. Dinner and a gift.”

“And exactly how extravagant is this dinner and gift?”

Castle winked at her and continued to hang ornaments.

Beckett gave a huge sigh and took a sip of her wine. She wouldn’t put it past Castle to buy him a car or something just as expensive. Castle loved to spoil everyone, especially when they were feeling sad.

The doorbell rang just as Castle pulled out the star for the top of the tree. “I’ll get it!” He announced as he ran to the door.

Ryan and Esposito were on the other side covered in snow but looking happy, which was a nice change from the other day.

“Welcome to our humble abode!” Castle said, stepping aside to let them in. “We were just finishing up decorating the tree, you guys in?”

“Yeah!” Ryan said, smiling. He and Esposito took off their coats and hung them on the coat rack in the corner. “I call dibs on the star!” He grabbed it out of Castle’s hand and ran to the tree with it.

Castle didn’t even protest. He’d planned on letting Ryan do it anyway. “How is he?” He asked Esposito as Ryan greeted Beckett and Alexis and then began to hang the ornaments.

Esposito smiled. “Better.” He said. “The other day was pretty rough, but when Beckett called and asked if we would come over, he got real excited. I think he just wants some kind of family to be with this Christmas.”

Castle nodded. “Good, I’m glad.”

“Hey, we could use some help!” Ryan called.

Esposito and Castle joined them and Beckett continued to watch from her spot on the couch. She was perfectly content to sit there with her wine, thank you very much.

When dinner was finished cooking, Beckett raised an eyebrow at how much food Castle had made, but Ryan looked like, well, a kid at Christmas.

He let Esposito pull his chair out for him. “You’re just like my mom, Castle. She always makes too much food.” He realized what he said a second later and the air around them changed.

“Let’s eat!” Castle said suddenly, not allowing Ryan to fall back into sadness.

From that point, no one mentioned Ryan’s family at all and they were soon forgotten as jokes and stories were told. At some point, Ryan was playing with a spoon of mashed potatoes and accidentally launched them at Castle. This started a two second food fight until Beckett yelled at them all to “Cut the bullshit because it’s Christmas, dammit!”

After dinner, they lounged around visiting with each other and drinking wine. Ryan and Esposito cuddled on the couch (though Esposito glared at anyone who mentioned it) and Beckett sat in Castle’s lap on the recliner.

“Well, we should get going.” Esposito said, a while later. “I’m not letting Santa skip over my house because I wasn’t in bed when I was supposed to be.”

“Santa, Javi?” Ryan asked. “Really?”

Esposito rolled his eyes. “Get your coat.”

“Before you leave,” Castle said, stepping over to the beautifully decorated Christmas tree. “We have a gift for you.”

“You guys didn’t have to get us anything.” Ryan said.

Castle returned with a package. “Open it.” He said to Ryan, holding the gift out.

Ryan took the gift slowly and ripped the paper off. He looked down at it and felt tears well up in his eyes.

Esposito looked over his shoulder and smiled.

Sitting in Ryan’s hands was a picture of the four of them taken a few months ago on Ryan’s birthday. They’d taken him out to a bar and got him completely plastered. This picture was taken pre-plastering. Castle had asked someone to take a picture right when they got to the bar and they all looked happy and excited, Ryan especially. The picture was in a frame that had the word “family” in different fonts all around the border.

Ryan cleared his throat, trying to keep his emotions at bay. “Thanks, guys. It’s awesome.”

Beckett gave him a quick hug.

Castle stepped forward to give him a hug as well. “It was Esposito’s idea.” He whispered in his ear.

Ryan pulled back and gave Castle a smile before looking over at Esposito who was grabbing their coats. His heart swelled with how much love he had for the detective.

“Let’s go.” Esposito said softly, handing Ryan’s coat to him.

“Before you leave,” Castle smiled and pointed up at the mistletoe he strategically placed above the door.

Ryan and Esposito looked up at it and then at Castle.

“Pervert.” Esposito said before grabbing Ryan’s face and kissing him deeply.

~.~.~

“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”

Ryan scrunched his face as he felt Esposito’s hot breath near his ear. He turned over to face his boyfriend who was holding a cup of coffee.

“Santa came.” Esposito smiled and waited for Ryan to sit up before handing him the cup.

“Still delusional, I see.” Ryan laughed before taking a sip. He set the mug down on his bedside table next to the picture of his family he’d set down when they got home the night before. “So, what did Santa get me?”

Esposito handed Ryan a small box.

Ryan smiled and ripped the paper off. The box was small and velvet, clearly it was jewelry. He opened it slowly and smiled at what he saw.

It was a thin braided leather bracelet that wrapped around three times. To fasten it together, the metal clasp was an infinity symbol.

Ryan looked over at Esposito. “I love it, Javi.” He said softly before giving him a soft kiss.

“I know I can’t replace your family,” Esposito said. “But I want you to know that I’m not going anywhere. I’m gonna be right here forever.”

Ryan put the bracelet on and kissed Esposito again. “You’re more than enough family, Javier Esposito.”

**  
**Esposito took Ryan’s face in his hands and kissed him again. “Feliz Navidad, mi corazón.”


End file.
